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The Spanish "j" is most commonly pronounced like the English "h". In Castillian Spanish, it is pronounced like the "ch" in "loch".
I have recently heard Spanish speakers pronounce "bañjo" and "niñja" like the English "j". I even hear the name "Beñjamín" being pronounced like the English "j". I have even heard other proper names like "Jennifer" being pronounced like the English "j". Is there any way to predict when Spanish speakers would pronounce the "j" like the English "j"?
When the words are foreign words and adopt the original phonetics.
Banjo comes from English, in Spanish there are both Banjo and Banyo, as it is pronounced.
Ninja comes from the Japanese and is pronounced with its original phonetics.
I didn't find any another word with "nj" from 2900 pronounced as the English "j".
But, sometimes the "j" is pronounced as in English in some words, especially anglicisms. For example:
Sometimes it depends on the meaning or use:
Jaguar the animal is pronounced like the Spanish "j"
Jaguar the car, like the "j" in English
Ginebra is pronounced with the Spanish "g", similar to the Spanish "j" sound
Gin is pronounced with the original English phonetics
The same happens with some Gallicisms, where the j or g are not (or rarely are) pronounced with the Spanish sound but with the French one:
And of course all personal names: John Travolta, Michael Jackson, Norma Jean, Jean Luc Godard, Jessica Rabbit.
@Danielillo's answer is mostly correct, but the sound isn't exactly like English ⟨j⟩ [d͡ʒ]. Rather, it's somewhere in between English ⟨j⟩ and English ⟨y⟩, a sound which doesn't exist in English — [ʝ] or [ɟ͡ʝ]. This sound is the same as the ⟨y⟩ in “yo” or the ⟨ll⟩ in “llamar”.
However, note that there's a wide variation in how this sound is pronounced in different regions, speakers, and contexts — [ʝ], [ɟ͡ʝ], [ʒ], even [ʃ]. And in some places, the pronunciation of ⟨ll⟩ is different from that of ⟨y⟩ (see yeísmo).
So, the more accurate answer to "When would Spanish speakers pronounce ⟨j⟩ like English ⟨j⟩ [d͡ʒ]?" is "never". But they pronounce it similarly ([ʝ~ɟ͡ʝ]) in loanwords from other languages, such as "banjo" and "ninja".
j. It is pronounced as IPA[x]or[χ], see course.happyhourspanish.com/lessons/…). It is much stronger ("throatier") than the Englishhand weaker than the Englishch.